Staff Pick
Uzodinma Iweala writes a coming-of-age tale that is so blistering and so timely, it's a wonder. Meredith and Niru have a long-standing friendship, but it is an unruly mixture of attraction, first love, confusion, jealousy, and rejection. Iweala picks apart themes of parenting, young adulthood, tragedy, and the misunderstandings that can sometimes catch fire and blow up into the daily news. Wonderfully done, with straightforward prose, Iweala tells this story from the perspective of both Meredith and Niru, and imbues it with a pathos that is beautiful and painful, all while digging into today's most heartbreaking headlines — this book is amazing. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the Gold Nautilus Award for Fiction | A Lambda Literary Award Finalist | A Barbara Gittings Literature Award Finalist | An Indie Next Pick | A Barnes and Noble Best Book of the Month | A Library Journal Best Book of the Year
"A lovely slender volume that packs in entire worlds with complete mastery. Speak No Evil explains so much about our times and yet is never anything less than a scintillating, page-turning read." Gary Shteyngart
"A wrenching, tightly woven story about many kinds of love and many kinds of violence. Speak No Evil probes deeply but also with compassion the cruelties of a loving home. Iweala’s characters confront you in close-up, as viscerally, bodily alive as any in contemporary fiction." Larissa MacFarquhar
In the long-anticipated novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, a revelation shared between two privileged teenagers from very different backgrounds sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences.
On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, D.C., he’s a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer — an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend, the daughter of prominent Washington insiders — and the one person who seems not to judge him.
When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed.
In the tradition of Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Speak No Evil explores what it means to be different in a fundamentally conformist society and how that difference plays out in our inner and outer struggles. It is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people. As heart-wrenching and timely as his breakout debut, Beasts of No Nation, Uzodinma Iweala’s second novel cuts to the core of our humanity and leaves us reeling in its wake.
One of Bustle’s 35 Most Anticipated Fiction Books Of 2018 | One of Paste's 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2018 | One of The Boston Globe’s 25 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018
Review
“Throughout a narrative spiraling toward tragedy, Niru’s pain is so palpable it will make you gasp….Highly recommended.” Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"Delivers with immediate
poignancy Niru's struggles....Portraying cross-generational and -cultural
misunderstandings with anything but simplicity, Iweala tells an
essential American story." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"...a secret
shared between two teens from different backgrounds....Speaks volumes about white
heterosexual privilege.... Notable both for the raw force of Iweala's
prose and the moving, powerful story." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
About the Author
Uzodinma Iweala received the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, all for Beasts of No Nation. He was also selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. A graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he lives in New York City and Lagos, Nigeria.